BlueStar Strategies - “2018 will be a decisive year for Europe.” This was the bold pronouncement made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who used his first New Year Eve speech to outline his strategy for Europe in advance of European elections in 2019. Macron clearly has 2019 in his sights, partly due to the fact that the European election results will be taken into account for the appointment of the next President of the European Commission and the 26 EU commissioners. These...

Arendt & Medernach - Through the law of 27 February 2018 implementing the EU regulation (UE) 2015/751 on interchange commissions for card based payments, which amends various laws relating to the financial sector (and was published in the Luxembourg official gazette on March 1st 2018), the Luxembourg parliament has now relaxed the rules on professional secrecy for banks, investment firms, other regulated professionals of the financial sector, payment institutions, electronic money institutions and insurance undertakings (together the « financial institutions...

Littler - Telecommuting used to be rare because it used to be almost impossible. Before today’s sophisticated workplace information technology, logistical challenges made it tough for a “lone wolf” employee to work remotely from home, disconnected, out-of-touch, inaccessible and isolated from the workplace, apart from supervisors, colleagues and customers. “Getting the job done” used to be hard without direct access to a secretary and to employer infrastructure, company resources and back-office support. Today, while many jobs still require employees be in...

Vision Impact Institute (Essilor) - Each year at this time, the world takes a moment to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women with International Women’s Day on March 8. This day is not about one single country, group or organization – it belongs to all groups collectively everywhere.  It’s a day to honor those women who are making a difference in the world around us. As a woman, I find it interesting that a blog about women’s...

By: Maia T. Spilman, Esq./CIPP To which category does your personal information/data belong?  I will answer this question the way most lawyers answer questions; it depends.  In this case, how personal data/information is perceived and handled really depends on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you are based. For purposes of this article, personal information and personal data are used interchangeably.  Lack of awareness of the Atlantic divide in perspectives can lead to unpleasant surprises for individuals.  For companies in...

By: Maurice Marchand-Tonel, European American Chamber of Commerce   Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower (Steve Jobs) As we all know, innovation today means market shares and jobs for tomorrow. We also know that the pace of innovation is accelerating at dizzying speeds. Many of us remember the times when computers were the size of a building and it took a whole day to process cards punched by bevies of sharp-eyed “perforators-verifiers”. Products sold in America were made in America,...

By: R.K. Gardner, New World Technology Partners Cyber incidents and concomitant security expenditures continue to rise unabated.  Boards are feeling that they have lost control, yet they let the technical teams continue to “wag the dog”.  It’s time for Boards to drive Cyber Risk Management like they drive all other enterprise risks.  However, to do so requires risk measurements they can understand- measures of CyberEnterprise Risk exposure. Cyber Security is currently determined through the Wiring Closet Lens Responsible IT hygiene, as suggested...

Attrecto - About a year ago here are Attrecto we introduced chatbots to our portfolio and basically started a brand new software product line. Now that we have had several successful projects and have running pilots with this technology we ask ourselves, will bots ever be more popular than apps or websites? If you work on chatbots on your own, you’ll find several answers to this question. However what we believe is that the chatbot first mentality could become the winning approach in the coming years,...